Yeshiva School students briefly dance on Grant Street after the menorah lighting outside of the City-County Building for the fifth night of Hanukkah, Thursday, December 26, 2019, in downtown Pittsburgh. (Photo by Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP Photo)

As the world marks the International Day of the Girl Child, women's rights activists point to progress on a wide array of issues but say more needs to be done to protect girls from child marriage, sexual assault and other forms of exploitation. Here is a selection of pictures showing the daily lives of girls across the globe, all taken by female Associated Press photojournalists. Here: In this December 14, 2015, file photo, a young clown rides in the back of a car following a procession to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Hundreds belonging to various clown associations made their annual pilgrimage to the Basilica to pay their respects to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

A participant poses for a photograph at the annual Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S. on April 1, 2018. (Photo by Gaia Squarci/Reuters)

A Togolese policeman, disguised as a terrorist, brandishes his weapon on October 20, 2022 during an anti-terrorism exercise at the Peacekeeping Operations Training Center (CEOMP). Togo's military on Thursday carried out a simulated jihadist attack in the capital Lome on Thursday, practising countering an assault and hostage-taking at a restaurant. Togo and neighbouring West African coastal states like Ghana and Benin are preparing for growing spillover from jihadist conflicts across their northern borders in Niger and Burkina Faso. (Photo by Yanick Folly/AFP Photo)

A rainbow appears over the Louisiana gulf May 26, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico near Brush Island, Louisiana. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

“The Qassam rocket is a simple steel artillery rocket developed and deployed by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Hamas. Three models have been produced and used between 2001 and 2011”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A rocket, similar to the Al-Qassam rockets used against Israeli is prepared for launch as new members of the Islamic Jihad fighters show their skills as they attend a military show in the former Israeli jewish settlement of Atsmona September 26, 2008 in Rafah, southern of Gaza Strip. (Photo by Abid Katib/Getty Images)

“That’s the only way to show how we really are” – sweaty, exhausted, but happy, actress and singer Juliette Lewis said about the idea of a photo collection capturing musicians moments after a concert. Photographer Matthias Willi and journalist Olivier Joliat have persuaded about 100 bands to take part in their “The Moment After the Show” project since 2005. Photo: Iggy Pop. (Photo by Matthias Willi/Olivier Joliat/The Moment After The Show)

Gianluca Pardelli is something of an expert on markets. For the past two years, he’s travelled across eastern Europe, from Azerbaijan to Uzbekistan, Moldova to Georgia, photographing them. Here: Telavi, Georgia. (Photo by Gianluca Pardelli)